Preparing for an awesome 2019

2018 is almost a wrap. I’ve just been working on a 2019 calendar of some of my favourite 2018 nature and wildlife photos. It’s at the printers now and will be printed on beautiful coated stock with each page of the calendar 8.5 x 11″ in size. Next week I’ll be snowshoeing through Algonquin Park for a couple of days to look for wildlife in the winter scenery. I’ll then be leading the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra in our second season concert on December 15 and then heading to San Diego for about a week. I’m looking forward to an awesome 2019 and have given myself a number of creative challenges to tackle. Between music and consulting I’ll be working on a new festival/conference that I’m planning for 2020 and hope to announce in the summer or fall of 2019. I’ll also be spending a good chunk of the year traveling for photography and I hope to be vlogging it all on my YouTube channel and sharing photos on Instagram. I still have many trips to finalise but here are my plans so far:

I’ll be jumping into 2019 immediately by flying to PEI on January 1 where I’ll be mostly looking for red foxes. I’ll also be returning back there in the Spring to photograph fox kits.

During winter I’ll be in Japan for about two weeks. Although there will be lots of street photography in places like Tokyo, the highlight will be wildlife including the snow monkeys (Japanese Macaques) in the Yudanaka Onsen area, and the Tancho Cranes, Whooper Swans, Steller’s Sea Eagles, Blakiston’s Fish Owl, and Ezo Deer on Hokkaido.

I’ll visit Banff for about a week to capture some winter landscapes.

I’ll be heading to Kenya and Tanzania, and a much warmer climate, for a couple of weeks looking for wildlife in Amboseli National Park, Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park, and of course the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

I’ll be traveling up north past Qikiqtarjuaq, around 68 degrees north, to camp on the ice in tents to find polar bears.

In late spring I’ll go to Khutzeymateen Provincial Park in BC to observe grizzlies.

In early summer I will spend almost a month in Alaska searching for grizzlies and other wildlife in various places including Lake Clark, Lake Iliamna, and Larsen Bay on Kodiak Island.

Right after I get back from Alaska I’ll head to Norway for a few weeks. This will include almost two weeks in various places in the Svalbard archipelago, going as far as 80 degrees north, looking for polar bears, arctic foxes, and other arctic wildlife during the endless days of midnight sun. I’ll then head back to continental Norway and spend time in Dovrefjell National Park looking for more wildlife including reindeer, musk ox, and moose. I’ll go to Smøla to look for white-tailed eagles and other birds on the water. I’ll wrap up with landscape photography in various places on the way back to Oslo.

Later in the year when the salmon are spawning in the BC rivers I’ll be in Chilcotin country looking for grizzlies and other wildlife.

Towards the end of the dry season in Botswana I’ll go to Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta to see more of Africa and its unique wildlife.

Watch this blog, my Facebook page, or my Instagram account for updates from the field. I’m also delighted to announce that in late spring I’ll be teaching a new course in Carleton University’s continuing education program on the process of individual and collaborative creativity, using examples from photography, jazz, business, military, and other domains. To explore the theory and practice of creativity and problem-solving, lectures will draw on sociology, psychology, physics, biology, and systems theory. One of the classes will feature a performance by a jazz trio. I’m also looking at bringing in some other guests.